Following the release of a claim from Anonymous that Walmart would be targeted, we received the following secret internal documents on Walmart’s attempts to thwart workers who are mobilizing for basic rights and a decent wage. These documents go a long way in revealing just how scared Walmart is of its own workers standing together for change.

FACT CHECK: OUR Walmart is not a union nor is it seeking union recognition. OUR Walmart is simply a group of Walmart hourly workers who have come together to address issues in their stores.

FACT CHECK: Walmart falsely claims that OUR Walmart is seeking union recognition and trying to build a union, because under US labor law, this would take away some of the rights of striking workers. OUR Walmart workers have gone on strike to stand up to Walmart’s retaliation against workers when they have come together to speak out about issues like decent pay, respect in the workplace and getting enough hours to survive. These are legally protected unfair labor practice strikes. Walmart wants people to believe that these are strikes for union recognition so that it can freely fire and target workers, rather than be forced to obey the law and respect their right to speak up.

FACT CHECK: OUR Walmart and UFCW are not seeking to represent Walmart workers.

FACT CHECK: Of course workers organizing does not guarantee any result, but we’ve already seen the result of doing nothing and you can guarantee that nothing will get better if people don’t stand up to bullying tactics, insufficient hours and low pay.

FACT CHECK: Walmart claims to have open lines of communication through its “open door policy.” This is really a divide-and-conquer tactic, in which the company makes a single worker bring issues to management alone. This means the “open door” is closed to groups who wish to raise issues together and is one way Walmart seeks to deal with people individually, instead of collectively in a stronger group.

FACT CHECK: Walmart claims to be transparent, but doesn’t even supply its workers with a policy manual. They have to access company policies at work on the company network, without time to fully review, rather than having a clear understanding of what is required and allowed.

FACT CHECK: OUR Walmart is a group of Associates who are speaking and representing themselves.

FACT CHECK: What this graph doesn’t tell you is what happened to wages and the middle class when union membership dropped.

FACT CHECK: OUR Walmart dues are $5/month and goes to support the organizing work of OUR Walmart. Workers are still welcome to participate if they do not pay dues or are unable to continue paying dues.

FACT CHECK: Making Change at Walmart is the UFCW-led coalition that works in solidarity with OUR Walmart, much like Occupy Wall Street.

FACT CHECK: Walmart workers, in most other countries, have union representation - the United States is an anomaly. When asked why that is the case, then International Chief Executive and soon-to-be Walmart CEO said “We have a local philosophy. It’s our intention to demonstrate that we are a great corporate citizen.”

FACT CHECK: Despite Walmart’s acronym “TIPS” Walmart has recently gotten into trouble for breaking most of the rules outlined in the acronym.

FACT CHECK: Note that the union card on page #34 does not say anything about Walmart. OUR Walmart doesn’t sign representation over to UFCW.

FACT CHECK: Unions partner with local groups to help them hold Walmart accountable. This is not meant to harm the company, but to call on Walmart to be a good neighbor and keep its promises to the community. Walmart often makes promises about wages and jobs when it comes to a community, but there is nothing to hold them accountable. This work is all done in solidarity with the workers.

If you are a Walmart worker, there is no time like the present to start organizing your workplace. Go to: http://ChangeWalmart.org

If you are an occupy activist and you would like to help with the effort, go to: http://ChangeWalmart.org and tell them we sent you.

Walmart is a real drag on American culture and quality of life. They rip off the government through their low pay and all of the entitlements that they get because of it, as the American people must provide food stamps and health insurance to feed and care for their workers, since they won't. They ruin vast amounts of land with there ugly superstores. They exploit workers around the globe to create huge volumes of cheap crap. There is nothing good about Walmart.

"And in 2010, as the Walton’s wealth has risen and most other Americans’ wealth declined, it is now the case that the Walton family wealth is as large as the bottom 48.8 million families in the wealth distribution (constituting 41.5 percent of all American families) combined."

Catch the beginning, around 2:30, of this episode of Abby Martin's "Breaking the Set" where she talks about the pathetic rights of workers here in America. We lead the world with NO mandatory vacation! NO mandatory sick time! NO parental leave! NO paid maternity leave! Yet we work more than any other country in the industrial world! Woo hoo!

The US is one of the ONLY FOUR countries in the ENTIRE world to not provide paid maternity leave!

Go Abby for shedding a light on this atrocity! What kind of sick freaking society do we want to live in? Wake up people and demand a better life! Your country is rich enough! The money is there for all children to be raised properly and for workers to have a life!

And, if you really want to get sick, keep watching this episode to see how Detroit is turning off water on it's most vulnerable citizens who can't afford to pay their looming water bills. And, gee, I thought water was a human right.

"Now, thanks to this long overdue change in the law, employees of all ages will be able to ask their boss to alter the way they work, regardless of whether they have dependents or caring responsibilities."

"When you look at the way we lead our lives, the stress that people are under, the pressure on time and sickness absence, [work-related] mental health is clearly a major issue. We should be moving towards a four-day week because the problem we have in the world of work is you've got a proportion of the population who are working too hard and a proportion that haven't got jobs", Ashton said.....We've got a maldistribution of work."

Amen.

Why are we Americans so neanderthal on workers' rights? Why can't we see how our "work ethic" here in the US is killing our society?

Hey ms beauty while I am with you on this one philosophically there are some real world problems to be addressed. We started a small solar construction company a couple of years ago. Not really possible for us to provide flexible hours. I also teach tennis for a living. I am leaving in an hour to run a camp 9 to 12 - 16 kids. If those who help me cannot work 9 to 12 then I cannot use them. I do not know the answer here. I have always had my own - very small - business and I think the ability of people to start a business is a really good thing. I have friends insSweden who do what I do and much more difficult there. The freedom for people at the grassroots to see opportunities is good for society. No?

Hey flip. The UK has put this in place for companies with 26 or more employees, I believe. I agree with what you say, but hey, where a company can provide flexibility, they should. Too many bosses just like being bossy and controlling, and I feel like in the US they get away with way too much b.s.

Why do you never have points when you start out a comment and I've noticed you are frozen at 5207? What is that about?

I guess if a business owner can't run a business without providing decent wages/conditions/benefits then those business "opportunities" serve only the owner & do not serve society.

So then that business owner must be identified as a bad business owner.

The smallest businesses can be handled differently than larger ones, but those details should be handled later. Wouldn't wanna get lost in the weeds, or distracted from the larger goal by specifics we can't possibly resolve.

Didn't realize this was a game. You can win if you think that is important. We all know now that thinking is not what you are good at. I had assumed this forum was about discussing ideas and informing others. How about responding to the first comment. I am a bad business owner because I do not meet your schoolboy ideas. Our workers would disagree. We invested our life savings and have given people jobs and built solar energy plants. The fact that we have to work at certain times and places makes bad. And yes you are a little boy - show me to be incorrect and have an adult discussion. No winners or losers just a simple exchange of ideas. Come on now. Show me

"Consider the fact that for every dollar of new wealth that has been created in the United States since the financial crisis, 93 cents has gone to the top 1%."

"The result of this process is that we have a global economic system that favors the biggest corporations; it grants them access to ever-cheaper resources and labor around the world. The system bends in favor of maximizing corporate profits at the expense of everything else. That's why of the 175 largest economic entities in the world, 110 are corporations, not countries."

This can and must be reversed if the world is to get back to some kind of decent place where human beings are the priority.

The Waltons implemented the idea of auctioning off American labor to the lowest bidder - they thrived on America's decline...they even blamed us for it. Other business followed suit to be able to compete with this mammoth monopoly they even claimed they had to...and quickly they all profited and began to pay off our system of government to force us along for their ride to the top and our decline, the downfall of the American dream, the loss of quality and meaning and hope. This is not the America I grew up in, sure it was brimming under the surface, the greed was always ready to pounce and the leeches were ready to attach themselves, but we fought back, we had protection in our democratic system and from our regulatory boards in our FREE PRESS and our willingness to dream and care for others and co-operate. But when one monopoly became so large so fast all while destroying the rest of us - we lost control, we couldn't fight them off...the Waltons know this ship is going to sink the economy is going to crash (ask them about the bunker under their compound) they don't care if we all drown in the water... they don't believe in god or humanity - or souls, you can tell this in the way they're just going to live it up until they wink off and pummel as many people as they have to so they can ride the hog until they go. Are we going to let them use us any more? Are we going to let them and their paid politicians and media get away with it?

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Canada's Supreme Court ruled Friday that Wal-Mart must compensate former workers at a Quebec store that was closed after they voted to become the first Wal-Mart store in North America to unionize.

The high court ruled in 2009 that Wal-Mart was entitled to close the store in Jonquiere in 2005, seven months after workers voted to unionize. But the workers filed a new case that said Wal-Mart contravened a section of Quebec labor law, which says working conditions must not be altered in any way, shape or form during a unionization process.

The court ruled in a five-to-two decision that the world's largest retailer modified working conditions for the employees without a valid reason when it shut down. The court ruled an arbiter will determine appropriate reparations, possibly with damages and interest. The store never re-opened.

Sounds like a bunch of communist sympathizers to me. Move to Cuba. Seriously - I really liked the graph of how our incomes have dropped as union membership has declined. The rhetoric against protecting our rights as workers has been terrible. Like my opening comments. Reagan really screwed us over.

Thank God for Wal Mart. The number one shopping choice of African Americans and the poor. They save them more money than any government program EVER could.

However they are despised by arrogant, self centered bourgeoisie liberals who think they know what's best for the poor. Union dues are more important to the liberal elitists than low prices for food, and medicine,